Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

Tomorrow Ellen will turn three years old! What happened to all of that time? Where did the infant go? It's amazing how much they change, and how fast it all happens. I remember driving myself to the hospital to get induced. I remember killing a cat on the highway at 4:30 AM on my way there, and crying the rest of the way to the hospital. I remember not being given anything to eat but nasty Jell-O for 20-some hours until after she was born. I remember snitching a granola bar or two from the overnight bag I'd brought. I remember how the nurse didn't believe I was having contractions very often because the monitor didn't show them, but they were reallly low and concentrated in my back. I also remember this same nurse helping coach me and telling me what to do and how to breathe and all I could think was how I wanted to bash her one...she'd never had a baby before...who did she think she was telling ME what to do?! (haha) I remember how at one point Ellen's...

No, not cleaning, unfortunately. This past weekend, and today, I planted a bunch of seeds; bell peppers and tomatoes. The peppers are pretty much an experiment. They are really hard to sprout. I will probably have to end up buying plants, but I planted a whole .20 cent pack...probably some 12-18 seeds, in hopes that at least ONE of them will come up. I have grown hot paprika peppers from seeds from the Czech Republic before, a couple years ago, but didn't have much luck with them last year. Perhaps that was more due to Ellen's having knocked them off the porch than anything the peppers did or didn't do. At any rate, I counted up that I have planted about 94 tomato seeds, from about 3 different varieties. I got a flat of those peat pot starter kit thingys...whatchamacallums... The lady there at Wal-Mart said they work really well, so I am hoping we will get something out of them. Last year we had 49 producing tomato plants, so I figure we will do pretty well if even ...

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One thing I hate about cleaning the shower stall and bathtubs, sinks...etc, is the hideous stink of the cleaners. It would seem that if it doesn't have an odor strong enough to strip your sinus cavities, it doesn't have any cleaning power. And that includes just the straight vinegar that is supposed to strip away the lime and hard water stains. I read an article awhile back that said that even though those spray cleaners are "supposed" to be safe, they will actually worsen any asthma or other breathing problems you may have, or potentially cause some. So...while reading through one of my cooking magazines I came across this recipe for a cleaner: Bathroom Cleaner 1/2 C liquid dish detergent 1/2 C baking soda 1/4 C vinegar Mix together and use on sinks and bathtubs. Not wanting to waste what liquid dish detergent I had on hand, I used some of the homemade liquid laundry detergent from my previous post instead. It did work quite well actually, even on the lime in th...

No...this won't be a gross green post. "Green"... as in, you know...environmentally friendly. A few weeks ago a cousin emailed me a recipe for homemade liquid laundry detergent. A pretty simple recipe. I tried it and actually like it, except for the fact that it separates and gets kind of clumpy. You have to shake it fairly vigorously to get it back to a liquid-y form. Nonetheless...it seems to work well, even on hubby's nasty chore clothes. Though I still do spot-treat them. Here is that recipe: (All ingredients can be purchased for under $5-6 for all! and will make several batches.) Homemade Liquid Laundry Soap 1 quart Water (boiling) + 2 more gallons of room temp water 2 cups Bar soap (grated) Use Naphtha soap bar (other can be used, but make sure there's no oils in it; 2 cups is all but a small chunk of the Naphtha soap/ I used the whole bar) 2 cups Borax 2 cups Super Washing Soda (it’s an Arm & Hammer box found next to the Borax-must use exactl...

Ellen's newest thing is helping set and clear the table at meal times. She is so cute about it. I set things down where she can reach them and she arranges them, to her specs, on the table. Sometimes she makes me righthanded and sometimes she makes hubby a lefty. She has to talk herself through the process..."One spoon for Mama, one spoon for Daddy." "One fork for Mama, one fork for Daddy." ...etc. I am hoping and praying that this phase will last until she is oh, about 20 or more. At least until she decides to move out of the house. My mom does not give that notion a good probability rating. But I can at least hope, can't I?

After over 5 years of living on the dairy here, there still seems to be "firsts" happening. Things that have never happened here before that is...even for hubby; and he has been running this dairy for well over 20 years. A couple of years back he went up the road to check on a cow that was due to calve. There she was, standing there grazing, seemingly unconcerned about the calf that was dangling from her backside. It was almost all the way out, except for the back hips; the front hooves hanging just above the grass. It was alive and bawling occasionally. Hubby chased her with the 4-wheeler, managed to hop off and grab the calf, which fell out with no injuries. He said it was the beatin'est thing he'd ever seen. The first time I came to visit, back before we got married, there was a calf here with no tail. It was a weird looking thing and ended up dying before it was a month old, I believe. Way back before my time here he also had a calf born with no hair. He g...

Our electric co-op issues a periodical called "Rural Missouri." This latest issue had an article on "Shed Hunting." This intrigued me. People actually collect sheds. Go looking for them, take them home. It's perfectly legal, you just have to stay off of private property. Shed hunting. SHED hunting? For reals? Surely not! How do you hunt a shed? How do you claim them? Do you repo them from their owners? How do you get them home? Where do you keep your shed collection? And hey! Get this: They train dogs to sniff them out! hahahaha... Seriously? No kidding! Would you pay up to $6,500 for a fully trained shed hunting dog? I obviously am in the wrong business. I need to start training dogs to hunt sheds. Oh. By the way... Here is a shed: Shed antlers. This makes a little more sense. But my original question remains...what do they DO with them?